Providing Skills for Students to Be Successful Past High School MATC Synthesis Paper

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in Curriculum and Teaching Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University

Kathleen Louise Davidson PID A36615466 July 19, 2013

Providing Skills for Students to Be Successful Past High School 2 After over a million students took the ACT exam in 2012, the results presented showed something that should influence teachers teaching practices significantly. The report showed that, More than a quarter of 2012 college graduates fell short of college readiness benchmarks that ACT sets for all four subjects, and 60 percent of students tested missed the mark in at least two of the four subjects (Sheehy, 2012). This means that a majority of our students are not college and career ready after graduating high school. As a secondary teacher, this was a call to action for me. I knew it was time for me to make a change within my classroom and then help share those changes with my colleagues. I knew that I needed to provide my students with opportunities to learn the skills necessary to be successful outside of the high school classroom. Because I am an English teacher, I knew that two of the most important skills I could teach my students would be regarding reading and writing. What I didnt know was that while in the MATC program at Michigan State, I would learn skills to teach my students regarding reading, writing, and technology that would help them be successful in the future. When thinking about creating a classroom where my students could become successful in their future, I had to decide what it meant to be successful past high school. I look at this idea very similar to our government. I believe that in order for students to be successful in the future, they need to be either career or college ready after leaving high school. While that sounds great, it is still a big idea that I needed to break down so I could see what skills that would require. When looking closer, I knew that my students needed key learning skills and techniques that they could use after high school. The most important skills I believed that I could help develop while they were in my classroom were their reading, writing, and technology skills. When first entering the program I knew that I wanted to focus on improving my skills at teaching reading in the classroom. Upon entering the program, I was just finishing my second

Providing Skills for Students to Be Successful Past High School 3 year of teaching. While I knew that I had improved in the area of reading instruction since I had finished my undergraduate program and internship year, I knew that I still had a long way to go. Through the courses I have taken and my experience in the classroom, I have found that one of the most important skills a student needs to be successful past high school is reading. In Duke, Pearson, Strachan, and Billmans article Essential elements of fostering and teaching reading comprehension, they stated that, the volume of experiences students have interacting with texts both in and out of the classroom significantly correlates with their overall reading success (2011, As cited in artifact 5, p. 7). This means that as an English teacher I needed to provide students with opportunities to read successfully inside the classroom and outside the classroom. What I found when practicing this idea in my classroom was that students were really lacking the motivation to read not just outside of the classroom but also when they were in my classroom. When surveying my students regarding their reading interests, I found that only five out of 28 students enjoyed reading and 21 out of 28 students sometimes enjoyed reading (2012, As cited in artifact 6, p. 5). I also found in this study that some of my students even found reading to be a bother. In order to make sure that my students gained reading skills to use outside the classroom, I first had to work on the motivation they had to read inside the classroom. To try to work with this problem, I decided to implement sustained silent reading in my classroom. I gathered information from Sullivans text, Achievement effects of sustained silent reading in a middle school on how to implement this in the classroom. Sullivans research showed that when students were exposed to 20 minutes of silent reading each day, their test scores with reading improved (As cited in Artifact 6). As I also learned from Kelly Gallaghers text Reading Reasons, reading makes you smarter. I knew that I wanted to provide my students with the readings skills they would need after exiting my classroom to be successful on their

Providing Skills for Students to Be Successful Past High School 4 own. Getting students to read more just to develop their knowledge was just one way to help them improve. Another idea I wanted to look into were specific skills that students needed to improve on in their reading. As I found in my research for artifact 6, I knew that they would improve their reading skills just from reading more, but I wanted to know what else I could do to help them be successful with reading. One skill I knew that my students needed was the ability to look beyond what the text is directly stating to identify deeper meaning. In order for students to do this well both with me working with them, and when they read on their own, I knew I needed to provide them with a repertoire of strategies from which to draw during independent reading tasks (Duke, Pearson, Strachan, Billman, 2011, As cited in Artifact 5, p. 8). I also found in Learned, Stockdill, and Mojes text, Integrating reading strategies and knowledge building in adolescent literacy instruction, that students exposed to reading strategy instruction performed better than their peers who had not learned strategies (2011, As cited in Artifact 5, p. 11). This meant that by giving my students direct instruction on what strategies to use while they are reading in class, they would be more successful because they would have those strategies to use when I am not around to help them. One strategy that I work with students on is their note taking ability when reading texts. Like I did in Artifact 5, I usually have students begin reading instruction by having them take notes on a reading on their own and then taking a short reading quiz immediately following the activity. After we go over the quiz results, I have students look back on how their notes helped them through the process. From Valencias research on assessment with literacy instruction I was able to see that students needed to engage in self assessment to be able to monitor their own work, set goals, develop needed skills and strategies, and improve learning (2011, As cited in

Providing Skills for Students to Be Successful Past High School 5 Artifact 5, p. 11). When students look closer at their notes and what they took notes on, they are able to see whether or not the skill that they are using is really helping them be a successful reader. I also work with students on asking questions of a text when reading in order to help develop those skills that help them look closer at what a text is really saying beyond the literal words on the page. Students need to be exposed to the two different kinds of questions they can ask during a text. Jim Burke writes that, Surface questions address literal aspects of the story for example, Where are they now? and basic details such as vocabulary. Deep questions help establish and reveal the depths of essential events (2008, As cited in Artifact 5, p. 15). In order to help students look beyond what was on the line, I had to help them understand what the difference was when asking surface level and deep questions. When students are able to ask deep questions about a task and then look at what the answers to those questions may be, they are able to look beyond what the author is telling them on the lines, to what the reader is telling them beneath the lines. When working with students on any reading strategy, I used Duke, Pearson, Strachan, and Billmans idea of the gradual release of responsibility model. I work with students very closely when I first start teaching them a strategy so that they feel comfortable using it. As we keep using that strategy in class, I gradually allow the students to take more and more responsibility for using that strategy until they are able to work completely alone. This helps the students feel comfortable using the strategy even when they are outside of the classroom. I also used Duke, Pearson, Strachan, and Billmans gradual release of responsibility model when teaching writing inside the classroom. Writing instruction was another area that I

Providing Skills for Students to Be Successful Past High School 6 knew needed to improve within my classroom. Writing is another skill that students must have after leaving high school in order to be successful in the real world. Before entering the MATC program, I believed that I had improved on my writing instruction and that my students writing was getting better, but after taking TE 848 I was able to really improve my writing instruction. Kelly Gallagher, writer of Teaching Adolescent Writers and current English teacher, believes that students need to be exposed to intensive hands-on writing instruction (2006, As cited in Artifact 1, p. 2). Through this class and my research, I found that I needed to help improve my students writing while they were in my classroom with teacher support so they could apply those skills without me the future. One way I found to help build my students writing skills was to use mentor texts when doing writing instruction. Using mentor texts involves having students read an example of a genre of writing before they write in that genre. The reading that they do involves close reading to look at the choices the author makes in that piece of writing. The students are then able to take what they have learned from that example and put it into their own writing process. Gallagher writes, If I want my students to write editorials, it helps to show them some strong editorials (2011, As cited in Artifact 1, p. 3). When students see strong writing, they can build their writing skills by modeling their writing after what strong writing looks like. For this reason, I began using mentor texts when teaching the students narrative writing. I wanted students to do narrative writing but I knew that they would need examples of what good narratives look like, so I began by having the students read A mistake that should last a lifetime by Jesseanne Collins (see Artifact 7 for the lesson plan). When reading through the mentor text they were able to identify the different techniques the writer used and things that stood out to them from that writing. In other words, the students were able to criticize her writing

Providing Skills for Students to Be Successful Past High School 7 to identify what they would like to use within their own writing. Then after writing their pieces they were also more able to criticize their own work. When Darla Shaw used mentor texts during writers workshop she also found that, The students appeared to be more willing and able to criticize their won writing and of peers after workshops in which they analyzed articles from various disciplines (2001, As cited in Artifact 1, p. 4). This resulted in better quality writing from my students. While the use of mentor texts is helpful to my students inside the classroom for teaching writing, they will also be able to use the skill outside of the classroom. For example, in the future, whether after college, tech school, or high school, my students will have to write resumes for jobs they want. Even though I wont be around to help them write these resumes, they should be able to use mentor texts to help them. They can find other example resumes on the internet to use as a model to base their writing off of. This means that they will be able to write in almost any genre at any time after they leave high school, as long as they can find a mentor text. One of the other skills students need to have prior to leaving high school is a something that has changed just within the last 20 years in schools. Students now need to be able to use technology effectively before they leave high school and enter the real world. Technology has made great changes within our society which means our education system must change as well. One change that we can make for our students is to use more technology within our classrooms so that our digital native students have more motivation when they are in class learning. While implementing technology is important, I was somewhat nervous about doing it within my classroom. I thought that by just using powerpoints and videos I was adding in technology effectively. My perspective changed completely after taking two technology classes

Providing Skills for Students to Be Successful Past High School 8 during the MATC program. These classes showed me that technology can be integrated into lessons that we already teach and that the technology we present should be interactive. I also learned that in order to effectively integrate technology into a lesson plan, the teacher should follow the TPAK and/or SCOT theories. The TPAK theory tells us that when creating a lesson using technology, the teacher needs to have technological pedagogical content knowledge. In other words, a teacher must know the content they are trying to teach, they must have knowledge of how to teach that content, and they must have knowledge of the technology they are using when teaching that content (As reference in Artifact 3). If they have all of these different things working together, they will be able to effectively integrate technology into a lesson. The SCOT theory tells us that the use of technology comes from the user. Meaning, a technology doesnt have a purpose until we give it one. Teachers need to keep these two ideas in mind when developing lessons with technology. I used these ideas when putting together lessons throughout this past school year. For example, when teaching a lesson that required students to write obituaries and create news announcements for characters from The Great Gatsby, I knew that I needed to keep the TPAK theory in mind. As stated in Artifact 3 on page 7, I knew that I had the content knowledge about obituaries and The Great Gatsby to teach this lesson and the skills to teach about them pedagogical skills but I knew I needed to those a technology where I had technological knowledge or else I wouldnt be able to assist the students. I learned from this class that I needed to have all of those different pieces working together in order for the lesson plan to be successful. I also learned from the SCOT theory how a technologys purpose can change based on how you use it. I found this when creating a classroom website for the upcoming school year. The website, Artifact 8, has a bigger purpose than I originally planned on it having for my

Providing Skills for Students to Be Successful Past High School 9 classroom. I was able to add in powerpoints, websites, and videos that students could access outside of class when I am not there to support them. This is much different than the original website that I was going to design using Weebly which was going to have a calendar of what happened in class for the students to reference if they were absent. In this class, this technology didnt have a purpose until I gave it that purpose. While using these technologies in class is great for student motivation, they are also necessary skills that students should have before they leave high school. In our ever changing society, students need to be able to use technology to support their learning outside of the classroom. They will be able to do this if we teach students using technology while we are there to support them. So what happens to the students who were a part of the 60% who failed to meet career and college readiness standards? These students may go on past high school to struggle in reading in their career and/or classes, they may have to take remedial courses in college that wont count towards their degree, or perhaps they will have to hire a tutor to help them through the courses they are struggling with an added expense which most students cant afford to pay. These students should not have to encounter these experiences. It is the job of teachers to make sure that these students leave high school with the skills needed to be successful in life. The MATC program has given me the knowledge to provide my students with these skills. It is now my job to not only help my students prepare for their life after high school, but also to help my colleagues understand what they can do with reading, writing, and technology in their classroom to help their students as well.

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Providing Skills for Students to Be Successful Past High School 11 References Burke, Jim. The English teachers' companion: a complete guide to classroom, curriculum, and the profession. Third ed. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 2008. Print. Duke, Neil, P. David Pearson, Stephanie Strachan, and Alison Billman. "Essential elements of fostering and teaching reading comprehension." What research has to say about reading instruction. Fourth ed. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2011. 51-93. Print. Gallagher, K. Teaching adolescent writers. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers, 2006. Print. Gallagher, K. (2011). Write like this: teaching real-world writing through modeling & mentor texts. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers. Learned, Julie, Darin Stockdill, and Elizabeth Moje. "Integrating reading strategies and knowledge building in adolescent literacy instruction." What research has to say about reading instruction. Fourth ed. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2011. 159-185. Print. Shaw, D. (2001). Sailing the seven C's of writers' workshop. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 45(4), 322-324. Sheehy, K. (2012, August 22). High school students not prepared for college, career. U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved June 12, 2013, from http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2012/08/22/high-schoolstudents-not-prepared-for-college-career

Providing Skills for Students to Be Successful Past High School 12 Valencia, Sheila. "Using assessment to improve teaching and learning." What research has to say about reading instruction. Fourth ed. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2011. 379-405. Print.